Home Depot Plans 14% Increase in Seasonal Hiring

Home Depot Inc. plans to add more
than 80,000 temporary workers ahead of its busiest season, about
14 percent more than a year ago, as a housing rebound spurs
spending on remodeling and landscaping.

The largest U.S. home-improvement retailer is hiring mostly
seasonal workers, though some will be offered full-time work,
said Tim Crow, Home Depot’s executive vice president of human
resources. Last year more than half of 70,000 temporary
employees were given permanent jobs, he said.

Home Depot is adding workers to run cash registers and work
in the garden and other departments this spring as Lowe’s Cos.
boosts seasonal hiring by 13 percent. Analysts estimate that
Atlanta-based Home Depot, which has about 331,000 workers, will
report a 10 percent rise in fiscal fourth-quarter sales, the
biggest quarterly gain since 2007.

“We anticipate good growth in our sales this spring,”
Crow, 57, said in a telephone interview yesterday. He declined
to disclose sales projections. “Our business pops in the
spring.”

Home Depot gained 0.4 percent to $66.67 at the close in New
York. The shares have climbed in the past four years, advancing
47 percent in 2012 when the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index gained
13 percent.

Home prices in 20 U.S. cities in November rose by the most
in more than six years, fueled by mortgage rates near a record
low. The S&P/Case-Shiller Index of property values increased 5.5
percent from November 2011, the biggest year-over-year gain
since August 2006.

Superstorm Sandy

Home Depot, which has more than 2,200 stores, plans to hire
3,500 springtime workers in New York and New Jersey, after
hiring about 2,000 in those two states to handle traffic
generated by repairs from Superstorm Sandy, Crow said.

The chain plans to add 6,700 seasonal workers in Canada, he
said. It is using an online tool to help military veterans and
reservists match their skills with positions the retailer is
filling, after making 10,000 such hires last year, Crow said.

Lowe’s, the second-biggest home-improvement retailer, said
last month it plans to hire 45,000 part-time seasonal workers
and another 9,000 permanent employees. The Mooresville, North
Carolina-based company added about 40,000 seasonal workers last
year.

Underwater borrowers -- or those who owed more on their
mortgages than their houses were worth -- fell by almost 4
million last year to 7 million, and could drop to 4 million by
the end of 2015, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co.

“We can start to see the housing market as an assist to
our growth rather than an anchor,” Home Depot’s Chief Executive
Officer Frank Blake said on a conference call Nov. 13. “We’re
not lighting rockets over this and we don’t want to get out over
our skis, but we’re starting to see the recovery of the housing
market.”